Astonishing Tales of Ka-Zar
by Scottenkainen
Summary: It's Ka-Zar - but not the one you know! Son of the Golden Age Ka-Zar, Kevin Rand is just a boy with special prehistoric mammals for friends. It's Ka-Zar mixed with the Herculoids and a dash of How to Train a Dragon, and only loosely based on Astonishing Tales #6!


"This Savage Land"

by Scott Casper

This was the Savage Land: 600 square miles of lush, warm savannah surrounded by an entire continent of unforgivable, barren cold. Television? Radio? Here, electricity was just something you saw in the sky during storms. Baseball? Football? When your neighbors are still in the stone age, it's hard to organize team sports. One might think there was not a lot of things for a young man of 14 to do in a place like that - but if there was one thing the Savage Land had in spades, it was prehistoric animals. And, for Kevin Rand, the boy known as Ka-Zar, that made the Savage Land the best place to grow up in the world.

Kevin was running through the tall grass between trees, aware that he was losing ground quickly to his pursuers. He could not outrace one on the ground, nor the other in the trees, but weaving through the trees hoped to put enough obstacles between him and his pursuers to slow them down. His pursuer on the ground was getting closer though, so close that Kevin could hear the pad of furry feet as it drew near - then stopped. Kevin knew that meant it was about to pounce, and it would easily reach Kevin from that distance. So Kevin took a running leap into the nearest tree branches and hauled himself up, a mere second before Zabu the Sabre-Tooth Tiger landed in the spot where he had just stood.

But Kevin could not stop, for he was now in Tongoo's domain. He heard a swish and a branch bending under Tongoo's weight as the brachiator swung into the same tree. Kevin could not turn to look, but sprinted away from the direction of that sound, running with cat-like nimbleness along a stout tree limb until he could leap for the neighboring tree. Kevin landed in the next tree only a second before Tongah did, but Kevin did not remain still. He swung through the tree branches until he spotted a ditch up ahead where the others might not follow. Kevin dove feet-first into the ditch and slid down its slope on his rear until he reached the bottom.

Kevin crouched there for a moment, his sandals and cut-off jean shorts soiled from the slide, his tanned and muscular (for his age) chest heaving and falling from the exertion, and his long blonde hair swaying back and forth as he looked around. Looking up, he saw Tongoo leaping down towards him.

Tongoo was a specimen of great ape from a branch extinct everywhere else in the world; though he was the size of an orangutan and had a face like an orangutan's, his body was built more like a large chimpanzee. Tongoo landed on Kevin's left side, raised his arms over his head, and screeched. Kevin bounded to his feet and sprinted the length of the ditch, knowing that Tongoo was a braggart by nature and might possibly screech about reaching Kevin first until he could get away. But, at the south end of the ditch, Zabu appeared - the tiger's eyes wide, body hunched low, and tail swishing excitedly. Cut off, Kevin tried to double back into the trees, ran up the side of the ditch-

And straight into Indro. Indro, the specimen of an elsewhere-extinct hornless rhino, nine feet long, was waiting for Kevin. Unable to stop his momentum upon cresting the top of the ditch, Kevin ran smack into Indro's downturned head and fell over backwards from the impact. Indro tossed his head back and forth, happy with how events had played out.

"You got me!" Kevin shouted between heavy breathing. "Next time...I'm not letting all three of you be _it_ at once!"

Zabu padded over to where Kevin was lying down and patted Kevin gently with an outstretched paw.

"I'm okay, Zabu…" Kevin said, rising slowly to his feet. "Just give me…" Kevin's voice trailed off as he noticed Tongoo was no longer shouting in victory, but shouting to alert them.

Tongoo was leaping up and down and pointing towards the hills, the Shalan Hills, that ringed the center of the Savage Land. They were tall and rugged, almost mountains, and half-barren.

"What is it?" Kevin asked. "Did you see something?" Whatever the ape had seen a moment ago was not visible now, either to Kevin or Tongoo, but Tongoo remained agitated nonetheless and kept baring his teeth. "Whatever it was really has you riled up…"

It was starting to rain. There was every reason to ignore Tongoo's excitement and start heading back home. There was no reason to go check it out. There was absolutely no reason to be late getting home tonight because of a detour up into the Shalan Hills. But there was Kevin's curiosity, and that, as usual, overrode everything else.

Kevin started to step towards the hills, but found something was tugging at his tan leather shorts. It was Zabu's claw, carefully inserted into the fabric without hurting Kevin.

"Hey, let go, you big dumb cat," Kevin said crossly. "Aren't you curious? I thought cats were supposed to be curious." Kevin carefully removed the claw from his shorts without tearing a bigger hole. "Look, I won't be long. It's maybe a half-hour's walk to the hills from here. If we don't see anything or it starts raining harder by the time we get there, I'll turn around and come back."

Kevin set off towards the hills, with Tongoo rushing to catch up beside him. Behind them, Zabu and Indro looked at each other, before Zabu decided to pad after them. Indro looked up at the rain sprinkling on his snout, snorted, and stomped off after all of them.

It was drizzling by the time they were halfway to the hills and, by Kevin's own word to Zabu, they should have turned back here. But, a moment ago, Kevin had spotted what looked like fire on a high peak of the hills. And now that fire was clearly moving.

The thing that looked like fire also appeared to be climbing down the side of the hill.

"Come on, guys!" Kevin called back to his friends. "Whatever that is, it could be dangerous! We'd better try to get a better look before we report back to Mom and Dad!" Kevin broke into a run. Tongoo kept up and, in a burst of speed, Zabu caught up to them. Only Indro trotted along well behind them now.

Refuge was a small hamlet of simple stone cottages, surrounded by a moat and wooden palisade to help keep out the dangers of the Savage Land. Refuge was home to a rotating, but generally 10 in number, group of international scientists invited to observe the Savage Land. There were also a clan of about 30 Neanderthals who had forsaken their nomadic life to stay live here in Refuge. The leaders of the community were David Rand, the original Ka-Zar, and his wife Lorna, who had long been known as the Jungle Girl.

David was in his early 40s now, his long mane of blonde hair receding off his forehead and heavy crow's feet in the tanned skin around his eyes. Lorna was 38 now; her shoulder length blonde hair that she wore in a ponytail was flecked with silver and she had a bit of droop to her chin now, though she was otherwise in fabulous shape still. They both wore sleeveless shirts of cotton, but also wore leather shorts and sandals just like Kevin's. They stood in the guard tower - a walled, multi-level series of platforms built on the branches of the great tree that stood at the center of Refuge.

"It's raining now," Lorna said. "You'd think that would get Kevin home if supper didn't..." She had been making idle conversation before, but as she turned to her husband she saw a look of concern on his face that made her pause. She touched her hand to his cheek and made him look at her.

"I don't know," David said. "I have a bad sense of foreboding."

"You think something's happened? To Kevin?" She could tell by his look that this was exactly what he thought. Lorna did not wait for a response, but grabbed the railing of the platform they were on and swung over it. She grabbed a hanging rope and swung out on it, away from the tree, and lit on the ground below, seconds before her husband did the same. They raced to the pen where they kept domesticated steeds, prehistoric horses known as parahippus.

It was raining on the slope of the hillside where Kevin was climbing. He was sure that this was the hill he had seen the moving flame and, though he had not seen it for the last five minutes, he felt sure it was close.

Miserably soaked, Zabu was trying to snuggle up against a boulder for some shelter from the rain. Tongoo shrieked of his displeasure intermittently. Whenever Kevin looked back to check on Indro, he didn't like the questioning look in the rhino's eyes.

"Just a little further!" Kevin protested to his friends. He pointed to the ridge above them. "I just want a look around from up there for that...that thing. I'm sure we're almost right on...top of it…" Kevin said, his voice trailing off as his startled eyes followed the movement of a golden creature vaguely resembling a horse that suddenly jumped off the ridge above them and began galloping onto the empty air.

Just as surprising was the fact that a man was riding on the thing's bare back. The man had a primitive, caveman look to him, but seemed to be wearing a short, leather shirt studded with iron, and carried a sword that was trailing flame behind it. The flame glowed with a brilliant light, like a magnesium flare. It only took Kevin a moment to guess that this might have been the light he was following!

The rider gave a guttural roar, utterly unintelligible to Kevin, but Tongoo seemed to take it as a challenge. The ape shrieked back at him, then picked up a boulder. Tongoo was stronger than an ordinary ape ever was - he heaved a boulder that weighed almost a ton into the air over his head - and pitched it straight at the man and his flying steed with uncanny accuracy. They were both bowled out of the sky.

Kevin turned to run, but paused. He knew he should run home and warn Sanctuary, but his instincts told him he should check on the man and his steed. Knowing how hard Tongoo could throw a boulder, the man might be badly injured, or even dead.

"Stay here," Kevin said to his animal friends, then he stalked off, cautiously, in the direction both man and steed had fallen. He did not have to go far before he saw they were both rising to their feet already. The sword was on the ground, a few feet away, no longer wreathed in flame.

The swordsman growled something again - but this time it sounded more intelligible to Kevin, almost like a dialect of the Neanderthal language he was learning in Refuge. Was...was the swordsman asking about someone?

"Me...Ka-Zar," Kevin said, unsure if that would help.

The swordsman seemed to just now realize he was no longer holding his sword and noticed Kevin's eyes leading back to it. Perhaps thinking Kevin would leap for the weapon, the swordsman dove for it first and scooped it up. Flames began to lick the iron blade of the weapon the moment he touched it. The rain sizzled as it hit the fiery sword, but did nothing to douse it. Kevin would have been impressed, but he was too worried about the look of malice in the man's eyes.

It was just then that Zabu and Tongoo came up on either side of Kevin, assuming defensive stances. And Indro was right behind him, as always. Indro's armor-like hide had proven itself nearly immune to fire in the past, which would make him good cover from that sword, or at least being on Indro's back advantageous.

The swordsman whistled and his golden horse-thing trotted up to him. The swordsman vaulted onto its back and grunted out something again that sure sounded like a challenge.

Zabu growled and took a step forward, but Kevin put out a hand to stop him.

"No, let me," Kevin said. He had an idea. It was a crazy, stupid idea, but if it worked, it might prevent any fighting from happening. He took a slow step forward. And then another. He slowly raised his empty hand as he drew closer.

The primitive swordsman held his sword straight out in front of him. Kevin was walking straight towards it.

Kevin's outstretched hand was aimed lower. He touched the face of the golden horse-thing. It tensed and pulled away from him. Kevin started to jerk his hand back, and saw the horseman glower down at him. But Kevin forced himself to stay calm and held out his palm where it had been.

The horse-thing pulled its head away. Kevin risked glancing up and saw that the rider was only watching him now, gauging his intentions. Committed now to this peaceful overture, Kevin could only keep his hand out and hope for the best. After another tense moment of waiting, the horse-thing moved its face closer again and nuzzled against his hand.

The horseman spoke, but his voice had lost its angry tone. He spoke a word that sounded a lot like the Neanderthal word for respect.

Kevin smiled and stepped back. The swordsman's blade barely flickered with fire and he lowered it to his side. Kevin slowly moved his outstretched hand back to his head to sweep the mop of wet hair out of his eyes, then gestured for the horseman to follow him. He had something special to bring home to show his parents…

This was the Savage Land: 600 square miles of lush, warm savannah surrounded by an entire continent of unforgivable, barren cold. Comic books? Awfully hard to get down here. Girls? Yeah, that was going to be a problem in another year or two. One might think there was not a lot of things for a young man of 14 to do in a place like that - but if there was one thing the Savage Land had in spades, it was crazy stuff like strange guys with magic swords and weird mutant steeds, that you could just stumble across while you're out playing with your friends. And, for Kevin Rand, the boy known as Ka-Zar, that made the Savage Land the best place to grow up in the world.


End file.
